West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-12-09
CARELESS DOCTORS.
cRlMINALLY SERIOUS SLIPS MADE
m WRITING PRESCRIPTIONS.


Physicians, aud Not Druggists, Generally
to Blame for Accidents in Putting Up
SIedicines-HOw NIlstak Frequently
Occur--AnOther Evil.
How often do we hear of fatal error made
by some sleepy or negligent druggists clerk,
rompounding morphine for quinine, laud-
nnum for paregoric or oxalic acid for EPSON
salts. How seldom do we hear or the criminal
carelesSnesS or murderous errors made by
physicians themselves in writing their pre-
scriptions | am satisfied, after careful ex-
animation, that the latter exceed the former
ten to one, and that the services OF the
coroner are not oftener required is due alone
to a fact notorious in the profession, that
a competent druggist carefully studies every
prescription calling for powerful drugs, and
himself corrects the doctors mistakes. One
serious error by a druggist winds up his busi-
ness in rapid order There is no one to stand
between the incompetent druggist and his VIC
tim, but the careless doctor can depend with
reasonable assurance upon the strong PROB
ability that if his figures are wrong and the
dose OF the drug is double what it should be,
the pharmacists trained eye will detect the
slip or the ignorance and put in the right
quantity
asked a prominent druggist the other day
if he often had to correct prescriptions. de
smiled. Il never correct a physicians pre-
scription," he replied. My business is phar-
macy, not medicine"
"But in case you got an order calling Tor
ten grains OF strychnine, to be taken at
oncel'
Il would not fill it. would send it back
10 the physician with polite note of inquiry.
That would be the retort courteous"
do you examine all prescriptions you
compound with view to possible errorSP
Certainly. Every druggist is compelled
TO do that in self protection. For example,
here is a prescription sent here a few weeks
ago.
"Now this, as you see, called for twenty
pills of sulphate of morphine, gelatine coated,
each to contain two grains"
did you refuse itl'
mo, filed it-and there was no funeral
followed. gave ten two-grain pills Of sui
plate Of quinine, gelatine coated, for knew
that to be what the physician intended to
prescribe. He is getting little old now and
sometimes makes slip of that kind, but we
always manage to set it right. About four
months ago one of my clerks brought me a
prescription calling for one gramme of BIZ
chloride Of mercury, or corrosive sublimate,
in eight pills. A gramme is sixteen grains,
which would have made the dose two grains
in each pill-enough to kill an elephant /
sent the prescription to the physician. He
erased gramme and wrote grain, even then
prescribing the maximum dose of the drug
one-eighth Of grain"
"Could not gramme be easily mistaken for
grainF'
Most easily Gramme is usually abbrevi-
ated thus, 'gm.,' while grain is 'gr. Many
physicians use the metric system, and specify
the weight in grammes. Now, if only one
drug is ordered the sign 'gm.' may easily be
read 'gr., and the patient will get only one
sixteenth of the amount intended, or, vice
versa, be may get sixteen times too much.
The latter case is not so probable, for the
druggists knowledge Of doses would inter
fere. But such prescription falling into
the hands OF an ignorant clerk could easily
furnish business for the undertaken and no
one be the WISER
~How often is the Judgment of the druggist
called into play over such questions"
with us it is a matter of almost daily oc-
currence, but Of course we handle a large
number of prescriptions. Most of the puzzles
are due to the wretched handwriting affected
by some doctors"
l asked another leading uptown druggist
concerning his experience with errors in pre-
scriptionS
"They have numbered hundreds" he said,
"but as we invariably refer them back when
illegible or calling for more than the maxi
mum dose given in the dispensatory the con-
sequence does not fall upon the patient"
How do the doctors behave when advised
of their Mistakes"
@Some take it kindly; others try to bluff
the case through by saying that heroic doses
We're required; others get angry. 1 sent one
prescription back to an eminent professor in
this city. 1t called for half grain of strych-
nine to the dose. He tore it up, withdrew
his patronage and wrote US an indignant let
ter, claiming that the prescription called for
only 1-25 of grain. He had destroyed our
evidence and there the matter ended One
night / got a prescription calling for 40
grains Of iodide Of potassium in three pow
derS, one TO be taken every four hours. The
regular dose of iodide is from five to ten
grains. sent messenger to inquire, and
the reply was the erasure of 'iodide' and the
substitution Of bromide The least conse-
quence of the iodide would have been a furi-
Gus eruption all over the patient, to which
certainly his malady would not justly have
entitled him, as he was suffering from de-
lirium tremens."
do you have much trouble with quacllsl'
NO. Quacks usually give very simple and
harmless remedies. They know their incom-
petence and constantly fear arrest for mall
practice should an accident occur The
quack, as a rule, confines himself to light
cathartics, tonics and lotions, giving a child'S
dose to an adult and trusting to luck and ma
ture to effect cure. Most Of them compound
their own nostrums and thus make double
profit, besides avoiding the placing of their
errors ON record 1t is the regular physician
and the physician Of high standing who is
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